Mr. Speaker, with regard to the 2007 citations issued by the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization, or NAFO, inspectors to vessels fishing in the NAFO regulatory area, with regard to (a), the Government of Canada has in some cases been informed of penalties and/or fines imposed by the vessels’ home countries. In other instances, the cases are currently pending or under investigation or have been closed.
With regard to (b), no formal inquiries were made, as this information is reported to NAFO members on an annual basis.
With regard to (c), when fines or penalties were imposed after conviction, information related to whether they were paid or not was not made available to NAFO members until subsequent years.